New Zealand Rate Decision On Tap For Wednesday

(RTTNews) - The Reserve Bank of New Zealand will wrap up its monetary policy decision on Wednesday and then announce its decision on interest rates, highlighting a modest day for Asia-Pacific economic activity.

The RBNZ is widely expected to leave its Official Cash Rate unchanged at 1.00 percent.

New Zealand also will see January figures for credit card spending; in December, overall card spending was down 0.6 percent on month, while retail card spending sank 0.8 percent.

Malaysia will release Q4 numbers for gross domestic product and current account. In the three months prior, GDP was up 0.9 percent on quarter and 4.0 percent on year, while the current account showed a surplus of 11.45 billion ringgit.

Japan will provide January figures for money stock and machine tool orders. The M2 money stock is expected to add2.8 percent on year, up from 2.7 percent in December. M3 is called steady at 2.3 percent. Machine tool orders were down 33.5 percent on year in December.